Visitors
by MARVELous life
Summary: Even outside of battle, timing is everything. It's uncanny, really, how some visitors have the worst timing - especially when they're surprise visitors. Movie-verse, post-Avengers.


**Gah. I am in desperate need of an Avengers and/or Ironman story. With or without Pepperony, I don't care. Suggestions, anyone?**

**This idea was given to me by StarkObsessed and Terez, so a HUGE thanks to them! All credit for this plot line goes to them! Like the others, this Avengers fic is a part of the Shawarma Universe. It's shorter than the original name for the universe, so ha!  
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**Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers or anything else Marvel-related. *Sniffle***

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It didn't take long for the superhero occupants of Stark Tower to realize that, even outside of battle, timing is everything—especially when it came to surprise visitors. It's uncanny, really, how some people manage to show up at the worst possible times. In this case, two people managed to drop by during a team-wide experiment.

"Okay, let's try this: Tony not bad. Hulk no smash Tony," Tony spoke through his Iron Man helmet as he avoided yet another giant green fist.

"Hulk smash!" Bruce Banner's alter ego roared. He picked up a chunk of concrete—knocked straight from the wall—and hurled it at Tony, who ducked out of the way just in time to watch it smash through the wall behind him and into the other training room.

The rest of the team stood discreetly off to side, doing nothing to attract the Hulk's attention. The goal of this exercise was to teach the Hulk that his teammates—the Avengers—were not enemies and therefore did not need to be smashed. They had made some progress so far, managing to teach the beast that Iron Man was Tony. It didn't help with his 'Hulk smash' tendencies, though.

"Sir, you have visitors requesting to be let up." The voice of Jarvis filtered through the helmet.

"Now is not the time, Jarvis," Tony responded through clenched teeth. He rocketed upwards to avoid a swipe from the Hulk, but had over-compensated for speed and banged his head rather harshly on the ceiling, causing bits of plaster to rain down.

"I do believe that it would be best to let them in," Jarvis responded.

Tony sighed. "Fine. You're up, Point Break." He motioned to the God of Thunder and waited until he had successfully gained the Hulk's attention before clanking out of the room in full armor.

He took the elevator to the floor with the patio and had almost all of his armor removed when a sudden thought struck him.

"Why couldn't Pepper have let them up?"

"Because, per your demand, all unannounced visitors need clearance from you."

Tony looked to see Pepper sitting on the couch with her computer, responding to an email from someone.

"Jarvis, let them up," Tony called to the ceiling. "I probably should change that. I don't like being interrupted during experiments."

Pepper chuckled and tossed him a dark shirt to put on over his neoprene liner with the hole for the arc reactor. Guests could see a very casually dressed Tony. Guests could not see a Tony with a piece of technology stuck in his chest.

"You're just sad because play time got interrupted," Pepper said as Tony plopped down next to her on the couch. Shutting her computer, she turned to face him and fingered a cut on his cheek that he had gained just minutes ago.

"I really wish that you'd stop fighting with him."

"It's the only way that we can teach him that we're not the bad guys. Besides, the Jolly Green Giant does all of the fighting—I just dodge." Tony grasped her hand and removed it from his face. Lacing their fingers together, he moved their hands to rest on the back of the couch.

I know. But it doesn't mean that I have to like it," Pepper admitted. Just as Tony was about to give her a comforting kiss, Jarvis's voice broke the moment.

"Sir, your visitors have arrived."

Sighing and pulling back, Tony turned his head to face the elevator doors, which dinged and open just as another Hulk-roar was heard. A man and a woman slowly stepped out, clearly afraid that the creature making the noise would be just a few feet away.

"Hi," he greeted cheerfully, as if there wasn't a giant green rage monster just a few floors away. "Don't worry about that, we're fine." What Tony didn't say was '_so long as the Hulk doesn't get incredibly ticked off and starts tearing his way through my house._'

The woman spoke up first, clearly not that intimidated by the great Tony Stark. "We're fine?" She nearly shouted. "God only knows what is shaking this whole building, and you say we're fine? You're a superhero, dammit! Shouldn't you be doing something?"

Tony didn't move from where he was seated on the couch. He found it quite amusing that this woman that he didn't know was yelling at him in the same way that Pepper might.

Remaining completely nonchalant, he said, "There are four other people on it. I would be down there, too, but I was called away." Tony raised his eyebrows and smirked. "Besides, he's a friend."

"Don't you dare try to blame this on us!" The woman shot back. Tony couldn't help but think just how much alike Pepper and this lady were.

Pepper finally glanced up from her Blackberry—she had pulled it out to finish up a few more emails while Tony greeted the guests—and sighed. "You guys picked a really bad time to come."

The woman looked to Pepper as if just noticing that the hand that Tony was holding belonged to her.

"Ginny!" The woman exclaimed with a smile lighting up her face.

The man finally spoke up and said, "It's nice to see you again, dear."

"Hi, Mom, Dad," Pepper said. She raised her free hand in half a wave. "As I said, you guys picked a really bad time to come."

Tony's only thought was, _ah, crap._

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**What do you guys think? Love it? Hate? Leave a review, let me know!**

**TBC**


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